This is probably the first and last post I am writing on the current political fiasco underway in Pakistan. What we are seeing is simply a repetition of what has been going on since the last 7 decades or perhaps even before that. Leaders are created, coached in politics, allotted slogans and succeed in swaying public sentiment for a while. Chaos and anarchy reign for a while, life is disrupted, businesses suffer, public and private property is damaged, dreams of a people’s revolution are casually thrown around, sentiments run high, sometimes governments change hands and ultimately life returns to the same old grinds and the dreams fizzle out.
Forget history and let’s focus on the present. Kaptaan Khan claims that all other political parties and former governments were corrupt, beggars, slaves of the ‘West’, stole tax revenue, and he is the only savior who can heal the country. People and surprisingly a lot of ‘educated and enlightened’ individuals are blindly following him.
Have these followers ever evaluated the past 4 years of Khan’s government? Have they forgotten how all of his party ‘leaders’ and most cabinet members came from those same old government which he termed corrupt? Have the forgotten Khan was the one who travelled extensively to secure loans for Pakistan and got us into absurd deals with China and Saudi Arabia, wherein they deposit amounts with our state bank on a high interest rate and we cannot touch those monies? Have we forgotten how Trump the fascist was Khan’s ideal leader? Have we forgotten how the pre-government Khan abused all governments for working with the IMF and then negotiated a US$6bn package himself? What did he do different from his time spent at the PM house? Nepotism, corruption, making excuses, blaming past governments, abusing political rivals, using state force against demonstrating doctors, teachers, government employees, farmers, etc. So, how is Khan the savior all of a sudden? Despite not being able to fulfill any of his pre-government tall claims, Khan is still considered the messiah.
The problem lies with the masses. We have extremely short term memories and selective perception. Slogans continue to sway us, Frustration among the masses makes Pakistanis choose the lesser of two evils, and the day we start doing that is the day we start losing control.
This scenario has been repeated to boredom. However, new communications strategies help inject life in age old campaigns. Sometimes it is newspaper ads, television ads, pamphlets distributed by hand, flyers thrown from helicopters, and now social media campaigns and twitter hashtags. The words remain the same, the narrative remains the same, and the allegations remain the same.
What the people need to consider is that who benefits from all circus? Who benefits from discrediting all politicians? Who benefits from anarchy in the country? Who turns out to the true savior at the end of each cycle of political unrest? Who rules for the longest stretch when no elected Prime Minister has ever completed even their 5 year tenure?
Nahyan Mirza is an Islamabad based development communications specialist and social and political critic. He can be found on Facebook (www.facebook.com/nahyanmirza/) and on Twitter @NahyanMirza
- Who Is The Minority? - 14/06/2022
- The Politics Of Sloganeering And Manipulating Public Sentiment - 04/06/2022
